Fleur Bailey is a Nutritional Therapist who loves nothing more than helping mums and their children with nutrition. As a mother herself, she understands that feeding your kids with the right foods to keep them healthy at all stages of their development isn’t easy. If your child struggles to eat a variety of foods, or you’re not sure what to feed them for their optimal growth and development, she can help take the stress away. She is also here to help support women with their own nutrition and wellbeing through fertility and motherhood. Here she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind Fleur Nutrition, the biggest breakthrough with her business, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Motherhood, absolutely. Becoming a mum changed everything for me, as I think it does for all women. You are no longer the centre of your own world and that can come as a huge shock.
I had no real-life experience of the hardships of motherhood: the birth recovery, health challenges and the relentless exhaustion, until I faced it myself.
I’ve been passionate about health and nutrition for decades, but it wasn’t until I had my first child that I felt driven to specifically help other mums and their children.
I see so many mums who are suffering. In the West, the support systems for new mothers are quite poor, as is the awareness of common post-natal issues.
It takes a village to raise a child but most mothers in the West don’t have anything like that – many don’t have even a single family member nearby. If you add on poor health to that level of stress and exhaustion, you get a very depleted mother. The mother is the rock of the family, and many other cultures recognise this, however our culture isn’t so good at that.
While I can’t provide a village for my female clients, I can support them with practical tools such as meal plans and guides, health advice and empathy.
My whole focus is to help mothers nurture their children, but also nourish themselves.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
When I became pregnant with my first child, I decided to step away from our recruitment business and qualify in nutrition, my passion. I’ve always been fascinated with the impact of food on fertility, pregnancy and childhood.
I put the practical side of my work on hold for a time while I focused on being a mum, but I continued to study and learn.
I then began to advertise and talk to people. I get a lot of referrals, which is amazing. There is such a need for nutritional therapy, and it makes me so happy to support people in being proactive around their health.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
I think when both my children became picky eaters at the same time, almost overnight!
My oldest was always a good eater but then he suddenly decided to eat only beige foods and his younger brother quickly followed suit. As I had studied a lot around food, behaviour and picky eating, I was able to draw on that knowledge to help us through it. Now they are back to eating all sorts of things again, thankfully! As with most things with kids, it was just a phase. But the experience was invaluable and I’m grateful its’s given me the chance to really empathise with parents who go through that.
I’m also fascinated with the impact of food on behaviour and learning in children. I feel this is an area that is so often overlooked. I get to see the effect of this on my own children every day. Food has such a profound impact on how we feel and behave.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
It’s a juggle, to say the least! My husband runs our green energy recruitment business, so we’re both used to working odd hours and juggling work and childcare between us. Most days we’re just improvising; no two days are the same. Our children and our clients always come first, which leaves very little room for ourselves! But somehow, we’ve created successful businesses with freedom for family time and travel. And we always eat dinner together, every night.
I think the best way to think about balance when you work for yourself is to accept that there is a lot of imbalance. I find that easier than feeling constantly guilty that I’m not doing enough in all the areas of my life.
